Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis

Blitzer begins his analysis back in the 1980s and continues until the immediate post-pandemic years. How and why has the United States’s stance on immigration shifted over the years? What has changed, and what remains the same?

How does Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here examine the role of human rights in US immigration policy? How do moral and legal complexities overlap when addressing these issues?

Blitzer often includes wider political and historical context to explain why so many migrants leave Central America. How has US involvement in Central America contributed to mass migration from the region?

The US and Central America mirror one another in a number of ways, creating repeating cycles. Describe some of these cycles. How do they serve to bind the US and Central America closer together?

Research and analyze the development of the sanctuary movement in the 1980s. Why was there some disagreement between activists surrounding the movement’s mission? What are some modern-day manifestations of sanctuary? What are the strengths and limitations of such movements?

How does Blitzer examine the American public’s attitude toward immigrants? How has the popular conception of immigrants and immigration developed or changed over time?

Blitzer anchors Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here around the stories of Juan, Eddie, Keldy and Lucrecia. What do these stories contribute, and how do they help to shape the book’s larger narrative?

Discuss the role of public health in immigration policy. What do Juan’s and Lucrecia’s stories suggest about the particular healthcare needs of immigrant and refugee populations? How can these needs be best addressed?